Posts by etabeta

Making us pay tax will DESTROY EUROPE, roars Apple's Tim Cook

Confiscate all of Apple's assets, and ban the sale of all their products in the EU. Tim C(r)ook is worse than the mafia.

LightSquared backer sues FCC over spectrum shindy

Re: Why, we might as well have been buying AIR

You fail to realize the technical hurdles that must be overcome to build GPS receivers that have a front-end that is selective enough to not be interfered by a signal only about 5 MHz below GPS frequency billions of times stronger. Sure they can be built, but you would never be able to put one in your pocket. Add $150.00 and a 5kg 4 cavity band-pass-filter and they would be compatible. Forget about hand-held devices! There was gross incompetence involved on both sides. Lightsquared should have never thought about asking to use that band for terrestial transmitters, and the FCC should have never given even the minimal go-ahead. It is obvious that all those involved did not know absolutely nothing about what they were doing, or what they were trying to do.

Re: Why, we might as well have been buying AIR

You fail to realize the technical hurdles that must be overcome to build GPS receivers that have a front-end that is selective enough to not be interfered by a signal only about 5 MHz below GPS frequency milions of times stronger. Sure they can be built, but you would never be able to put one in your pocket. Add $150.00 and a 5kg 4 cavity band-pass-filter and they would be compatible. Forget about hand-held devices! There was gross incompetence involved on both sides. Lightsquared should have never thought about asking to use that band for terrestial transmitters, and the FCC should have never given even the minimal go-ahead. It is obvious that all those involved did not know absolutely nothing about what they were doing, or what they were trying to do.

STUPIDITY!

Lightsquare'd move to even think that they would be able to use those frequencies so close to 1575 MHz used by civilian GPS was total technical ignorance and stupidity. Assuming that Lightsquared would be able to filter out any interference from their transmitters to the GPS frequencies, they surely could not have expected that the manufacturers of GPS equipment would be able to put suitable band-pass filters on the front-end of their receivers to prevent them to be saturated with the earth-based Lightsquared signal over 90dB more powerful. Immagine a smartphone with a telephone book sized filter attached to it! While this issue would have probably been able to be solved (but at what cost!) on board aircraft or in other vehicles, it sure would not have been possible with hand-held devices. The FCC should have NEVER even considered re-assigning spectrum to be used from only from space-to-earth. Somebody got some big kickbacks!...and that somebody in my opinion must be fired, and must spend the next 20 years in jail.

Seagate's south UK factory hasn't a future but HDDs do (it hopes)

I seriously doubt that this technology will be of any use in 5 years. By then other technologies will probably overtake HDDs completely. Let's wait and see what happens with Xpoint.

Microsoft discovers long-lost phone division down back of sofa

Buy a phone with NOKIA written on it: maybe-----with M$ on it: NEVER!

What fools to completely kill Nokia.

Ofcom: 'White space' tech to support mobile data services in 2015

Outright Incompetance

OFCOM doesn't know what they are talking about. DTT on white space? Give me a break OFCOM! How much did the telecoms bribe you to make such an idiotic proposal. Just imagine everybody having to retune their TV every few hours because of changes in the whitespace resources. If anything needs a sure frequency assignment that is interference-free, it is DTT!

Good grief! Have you seen BlackBerry's square smartphone?

Maybe this will save them from folding. I personally HATE on-screen keyboards. Interesting, and different from anything else on the market.

Lumia rebrand begins: Nokia's new UK web home is Microsoft.com

This is going to backfire for M$

Best way to reduce ex-Nokia sales another 75%. How can they be so stupid?

Home Depot: 56 million bank cards pwned by malware in our tills

Use a VSAT connected intranet to connect these POS units to central server. With no physical connection to the internet, they can put as many trojans as the want in the POS firmware, but with no physical connection to the internet they won't be able to break in, and data can't get out.

DISPLAY DESTRUCTION D'OH! Teardown cracks Surface Pro 3 screen

This is a scam!

From my personal experience, if a device like this is intensively used, the battery capacity will be significantly be decreased after 2 years- unless it fails catastrophically before then. Another weak point can be the charging/usb connectors. This M$ built-in "programmed obsolescence" is an outright scam.

The solution? Maybe the UE should make it mandatory for manufacturers to extend warranties to six years by paying an extra 10% of original purchase price before the standard 2 year warranty period expires. Since no Li-ion battery is going to last 6 years, this bad habit of gluing everything together will suddenly cease.

Another thing I would like to see is a mandatory "repairabilty index" sticker on all consumer electronics; which must pass a minimum limit or otherwise be banned from sale in the UE.

Londoners urged to cut landlines and take up wireless broadband

..FAIL..

No way a wireless provider can give decent service and bandwidth compared to a FTTH connection, no matter how they do it. I have heard this so many times and the end result is always crap. This might only appeal to those individuals that are blacklisted by broadband providers because they don't pay their bills. I give a FAIL before they even start

Amazon granted patent for taking photos against a white background – seriously

Everybody should be sent home

Whenever these scams surface, all those involved with the particular case at the patent office, at all levels, should be immediately fired.

Patents like these must be also immediately invalidated without appeal.

Yes, HP will still sue you if you make cartridges for its inkjet printers

Very easy solution: NEVER purchase anything made by HP. Before purchasing any printer I always check the availability of alternative firmware so chip-less cartridges may be used.

Amazon patents caches for physical goods

USPTO on crack!

USPTO on crack? So any entity that has local warehouses to distribute their wares more efficiently is infringing this so-called patent?? What a sick and broken patent system. The USA is becoming a troll haven.

Scientists discover supervolcano trigger that could herald humanity's doom

and I live on top of one of those 20

No joke, really. It is the Campi Flegrei near Naples, Italy. Hope it doesn't blow soon.

Don't crack that Mac: Almost NOTHING in new Retina MacBook Pros can be replaced

Programmed obsolescence

Time will come that Apple (and maybe some other manufacturers too) will assemble their ware and then just seal everything with some low-density potting compound to make it impossible to disassemble without destroying it.

Then they might add a timer and/or hour-meter to disable the entire unit (except to back-up data?) after a certain number of working hours or after a certain date. The unit will just display:

"This device has expired; please visit your nearest Apple store and purchase one of our new great products".

They probably haven't started used potting compound yet because of the added weight.

Look out for a new patent for "Low-weight potting compound for tamper-proof portable electronic devices"

Adhesives & Glue = cheap junk

During normal use, a laptop battery will last at the most for 2 years after which its capacity becomes noticeably impaired. I would immediately put such devices on my black list knowing the difficulty of repair, or in the case of replacing batteries, just ordinary maintenance. It is not the pentalobe screws that bother me, but their excess use of glue and adhesives. There is no excuse for high-tech to be assembled in such a cheap low-tech manner. People are just plain stupid to spend so much hard-earned cash to go out and buy this crap that will prematurely wind up in a landfill.

Rare gold iPhone 5s goes up against 50 caliber high precision rifle

Sick!

I hate iPhones and Apple in general for their lock-down policies, but this guy is a sick moron. they should lock up these birdbrained gun fanatics and throw the keys away. Verrry sick society that permits this.

Apple wins Samsung import ban, loses 'Battle of Rounded Corners II'

"detection of an audio plug's insertion and removal from a phone"

Give me a break Apple. PRIOR ART!!! This is on one of my older PCs with an ASUS motherboard dated 2002!

B U R N I N H E L L with your crappy troll patents. Never did and never will buy your crap because you think you own everything.

Win XP alive and kicking despite 2014 kill switch (Don't ask about Win 8)

Some specialized sw will only run on XP.

I had to install XP sp3 on two servers last month because the sw won't run on Win 7 or 8

US lawmaker blames bicycle breath for global warming gas

A fool anyway

For this jerk to write or even think of something this silly, with or without apologies, he is still a fool . Who votes for people like this?

Mega launches with mega FAIL

Slowwwww.....

I was able to signup, but when I tried to upload a 1.5mb file it started at 1k and a few minutes later just stayed at 3% for about 30 minutes. At least for now, it is unusable.

Amazon rainforest starts making phone calls

1 year battery lifetime?

1 year battery lifetime seems somewhat lame to me. They could get a 10+ year lifetime by using a simple mercury tilt switch to power on the device only when the tree is not vertical, and a long-life lithium/thionyl chloride battery.

Next-gen H.265 video baked into Broadcom's monster TV brain

Very bad demo

Anybody working with video compression knows that the hardest thing for it to do is handling rapid movement of detailed objects. Just having this dude sit there and barely move is no demo at all; I would have liked to see a such a comparison with a F1 race. Very strange that nobody present made an issue over this; were they all drugged?. One must also consider that there is not much of a comparison to make even if this clip was in 1080p h.264, as any "blockiness" and other artifacts, along with a loss in resolution could be the result of the Youtube encoding.

Very crappy demo, but I hope that h.265 lives up to the claims of 50% bandwidth less than h.264 with the same quality

Crushing $1.17bn Marvell patent judgment could set record

Broken patent system

This absurd award for a trivial algorithm is in the same category as the Apple / Samsung controversy. Over $ 1 billion?? Give me a break! The maximum award for a crappy patent like this should have been at the very most - if found guilty - 1% of revenues generated by the sale of that particular chip. This time it looks like the entire court was on crack!

NYC mayor pins crime rate spike on iPhone, iPad theft

Just ban Apple products

...so crime will go down again. Simple.

Memo to Groupon: Best cheapo deals have a premium tag

Freeloader's paradise

All the people that I know that use Groupon are addicted to it, and if they don't get a "deal", they just don't go. So a business that is offering whatever for a fraction of the normal price is just not going to see that customer any more. Useless and expensive advertising method that just attracts freeloaders.

Apple engineers 'pay no attention to anyone's patents', court told

Surely not an Apple fan but.....

The entire US patent system must be redone, and the first that must go are those software patents. The system must also not leave any space for the trolls.

iPhone 5 unlocked US prices placed on Apple website by accident

Overpriced

Overpriced phone, extortion priced NAND: they can keep them

Apple must apologise for its surly apology on its website on Saturday

You have to scroll down to see it....

You have to scroll down to see it....

This is almost a blatant contempt of court as to reach the link you must scroll all the way down the page to see it, even if your monitor is set to 1600x1200. Who is going to see it?

I hope the court orders them to publish it in 20pt font on their homepage, and then provide a link if one wants to continue to Apple's page.

If they still refuse to comply slap these pricks with a £ 50 million/day fine and ban the entire Apple domain from the entire EU until they do.

SHAME on you Apple! ...acting like a bunch of spoiled brats!

British judge: Say you're sorry Apple... this time like you MEAN it

Re: Apple website should be taken down

"They could take down the apple.co.uk domain, but it wouldn't make any difference as Apple have only had ownership of it since just recently. all it does it redirect to apple.com/uk which is where everyone has been going for the uk apple site for many, many years. I doubt many people really realise apple.co.uk now points to Apple."

If that is the case just block the entire apple.com domain in the entire UK!....

Apple website should be taken down

I saw that "sad" apology on the Apple website a few days ago and was wondering what the judges thought about it and if they would take further action. Now they say it "takes 2 weeks" to change it? for Apple ? Give me a break Apple - and you better stop bullying the judges around otherwise who knows what is going to happen next. Maybe the court should take the entire apple.co.uk domain down until they comply. I am beginning to really hate Apple's bully tactics!

Microsoft sues Google directly in German Maps-on-Moto lawsuit

Microsoft joins Apple as a TROLL!

Apple never saw any of my cash and never will, and now MS is never going to see mine again. Next notebook I buy I will DEMAND a refund for the crap OS (win 8) on it even if it means initiating a lawsuit. Looks like German courts are becoming the EU troll havens.

Crazed Microsoft robot accuses BBC kids' channel of Win8 piracy

$100 is not enough

I would make it $1000 for any non-infringing link, plus the right to sue who issued the DMCA complaint for damages

Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers DAYS before launch

Beginning of the end.

Shame on you Apple for dumping Google Maps and replacing it with a bunch of crap. So what happened to your hyper-testing of installed SW? No matter how many engineers you hire, there is no way you could have made a working map app in a few months. That takes a lot of time and patience; plus you can't possibly have all that Streetview data which permits the Google navigation to even tell you what is written on the road signs at intersections (unless you steal that from them!)

'Programming on Windows 8 just like playing bingo' - Microsoft VP

I'll take his word

...So programming on Win 8 is a big gamble...he said it, not me!

French firm snatches Italian set-top contract from Blighty's Amino

2nd failure

The first round was a flop with Alice, and this will be a flop also. It just won't work with their crappy low-speed outdated infrastructure.

HTC's 4G patent beef could get iPhone 5 BANNED in US

Like & Dislike -Apple looses

From the likes and dislikes of the various posts it looks as if Register readers are 15% pro-Apple and 85% anti-Apple. If overall sales would be in the same proportions we wouldn't have the Apple-sue-everybody problem anymore as they would be bankrupt. Too bad that is not the case (yet) !

Global strategic maple syrup reserves hit in Canadian mega-heist

Patented

Maybe they hid it because they discovered that Apple was granted a patent for maple syrup!

Samsung fights to stay on US shelves as Apple calls for ban

Open Source OS on all Samsung products

I think Samsung should play a smart move now: sell all their products without any pre-installed OS (as assembled PC's were once sold), only with a bare essentials sw that lets you make a phone call with limited internet connectivity. Then they could make their personalized version of Android available as an open-source download from a server in any country (like most of Europe) that does not honor all these idiotic software patents. It would then be each individuals' responsibility to download and install the full OS; which could easily be furnished in many versions, from a no-frills non-infringing version to a feature-packed "infringing" version. What will Apple do then? Sue everybody that uses non-Apple smartphones? The manufacturer could surely not be held responsible for the consumer that installs infringing software!

If the US does not quickly revise their patent system, and invalidate ALL software patents, along with "rounded rectangle" patents, they might find themselves in a new digital "dark age"

By letting 12 morons decide the future of technological innovation is just too much!

Cook's 'values' memo shows Apple has lost its soul

Seems like Apple is on the way up on the hate list

Just look at the "likes" and "dislikes" on the various posts...Looks like the Apple trolls are getting a 95% dislike rating! I wish all consumers were the same, so these devils wouldn't have the cash to pay their evil lawyers!

Microsoft: It was never 'Metro,' it was always 'Modern UI'

Darwin prize

The more I see and hear it looks like M$ is going to get the Darwin prize for this OS. The UI might be ok for a tablet or phone (which I doubt anyone will buy), but for business-oriented desktop users things will get really bad.

Nokia shutters Qt Brisbane office

Elop killing Nokia

Looks like M$ sent their hit-man Elop to slowly kill Nokia, only to buy out the whole outfit when the price is way down.

Oops: Nokia reinstates 'terminated' star app developer

WP8 is going to be a failure

..along with Win 8. And it seems like Nokia and MS are doing everything possible to make it an epic FAIL.

Apple CEO: Frothing fanboi iPhone 5 hype screwed our sales

It's all my fault!

For not wasting my money to pay their damned patent layers; and buying a Galaxy SIII !

Build a bonkers hi-fi

Snake oil

Almost 99.99% of this so called "high end" audiophile biz is a fraudsters haven. I know they wouldn't be in business if there enough stupid fools around that actually believe these snake oil salesmen, but I should would like to see them in jail for fraud! And that includes the Amazon CEO.

US county named 'area of outstanding natural stupidity'

Constitutional madness

The constitutional right "to bear arms" might have been OK 2 centuries ago, and all those guns laying around will do nothing but harm.

Firearms should only be in the hands of the military and the police!

Get with it USA, try to be more civilized- get rid of all those damned guns, and send all those diehard NRA fanatics to the moon.

Did your iPhone 'just stop working' - or did you drop it in your BEER?

Patent??? TROLL !!

I have seen these "sensors" inside my phones since the mid 1990's (mainly Nokia's). A little patch of white paper with a red checkerboard pattern that becomes all red if it ever gets wet. Now Apple gets a patent for this?? Looks like Apple is becoming a full-fledged patent troll! SHAME SHAME SHAME!!! And Apple is saying that Samsung is copying the crap they make?